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The Gauntlet
CFS ok at U of S,
not at Algonquin
External Commissioner Bill Wong explains why he opposes a referendum on CFS member*
Jean Munn (right) and Donna Baines are not amused.
photo by Ty Reynolds
SLC belabours CFS
by Jim Stanford
The U of C students circulating
the petition calling for a referendum full membership in the
Canadian Federation of Students
(CFS) have collected the required
number of signatures to force the
Students' Union to hold the ballot.
But the majority of Students'
Legislative Council that opposes
the holding of the referendum is
not going to give up that easily.
According to Miriam Schmidt,
chairperson of the U of C Anti-
Cutbacks Team, and organizer of
the petition campaign, over 1600
signatures have been collected calling for the opportunity to vote on
CFS membership.
The petition was presented to
last night's SLC meeting; but a
motion to accept the petition and
call a referendum was defeated by
a 9-7 vote.
Constitutionally, a petition that
is signed by at least 10% of the
Students' Union membership
(slightly more than 1200 signatures, given this year's under
graduate enrollment of 12,000 at
the U of C) can force the Union to
sponsor a referendum on any
question.
The SLC vote was, in constitutional terms, not an important one,
because the petition was going tc
be referred to the Review Board
(an appointed body of the Students' Union somewhat like the
Supreme Court) for examination
anyway.
If the Review Board decides that
the petition is valid, and SLC then
refuses to hold the referendum, those student councillors opposing
the referendum will be collectively
impeachable, according to Rick
Biilington, Speaker of SLC.
That's not good enough, however, for VP-Programs Donna
Baines, who helped with the petition campaign and supported the
referendum motion. She said that
by refusing to sponsor the referendum, councillors "are ignoring this crystal clear statement
from 1600 students".
"Why are we so scared of hear-
Signing is easy
The controversy at the SIC
meeting last night tended to
push the success of Out CFS
referendum petition campaign into tiie background.
Ami-Cutbacks Team
chairperson Miriam Schmidt
says that over 1600 signatures were collected calling
for the referendum in just over
two weeks of petitioning.
"The ease with which we
collected die required signatures seems to back up what
we've been saying all along:
students want a chance to
vote on the issue of CFS membership*', she said.
ACT member Jane Bouey,
who played a central role in
organizing die petition
campaign, claimed that there
"was almost a unal absence
of negative response''.
Not only did most of the students I talked to want a choice
on membership in CFS, but
most of them also wanted to
join", she said.
It was the second success-
fid petition campaign carried
out by ACT this year. In October of this year, Anti-
Cutbacks Team members collected over 3000 signatures at
the V of C on the nation-wide
"Stop the Cuts - Grants Not
Loans" petition sponsored by
CFS.
ing - and listening - to what students really think?", she asked
during debate last night.
SU President Richard
O'Gorman spoke against calling
the referendum, saying that
sponsoring a vote this semester
would be "asking me to make a
choice when I'm not ready to".
O'Gorman added, though, that
if the Review Board finds the petition valid, SLC would have no
choice other than to go ahead and
sponsor a referendum.
ACT chair Schmidt disputed
claims that students are uninformed on CFS, suggesting that
the work done by ACT and others
this year had made more students
aware of both student issues and
student organizations.
"Besides", she added, "I haven't seen this council do anything
to make students more knowledg-
able on the organization''.
External Commissioner Bill
Wong had some questions regarding the advertising that accompanied the petition campaign,
suggesting that the services offered
by CFS were not as extensive as
advertised.
VP-External Munn countered
that " it is important that we are not
talking about opposition to CFS,
but rather about the referendum
itself'.
The Review Board will now
hold a hearing to decide whether or
not the petition is valid. If so, the
referendum will be held in conjunction with the upcoming Students' Union elections in March.
Some of those council members
opposing the referendum suggested that the petition could be
ruled invalid because of the manner in which signatures were collected. Baines laughed at this suggestion, saying that "students are
not stupid enough to sign petitions
without knowing what they are about; it is insulting for us to suggest
otherwise".
by Jim Stanford
The fledgling Canadian Federation of Students picked up 10,000
more members last week, but also
lost another 10,000 potential members in a split double-header of major referenda.
Students at the University of
Saskatchewan in Saskatoon voted
by an overwhelming margin of
81 % to join the new national student organization. Also
noteworthy about the U of S vote,
held Thursday and Friday of last
week, was a near-astounding voter
turnout of 31 %, "the highest turnout for an election or referendum
on this campus in recent history",
according to U of S Students' Union president Don Rutherford.
Rutherford was pleased with the
outcome of the referendum, suggesting that "overall the students
were convinced that CFS is a really
worthwhile organization''.
"We were able to get a lot of
information out to the students on
what CFS can do and is doing for
the students", he told theGaunt-
let. "and received a great deal of
support from the various student
societies and clubs on campus''.
CFS Executive Officer John
Doherty agreed with Rutherford's
post-referendum analysis, adding
that "there has been so much discussion all year at the U of S about
the whole range of student issues,
and especially the question of
funding, that the students could not
help but see the potential of a national student organization".
U of S was the good news for
Doherty and CFS; the bad news
came last week from the students at
Algonquin College in Nepean, Ontario. They also voted on CFS
membership last week, and re
jected the national organization
narrowly, 56% to44%.
The turnout for the Algonquin
ballot was a substantial contrast to
the case at the U of S, with only
between 8 and 9% of all students
voicing their sentiments either
way.
Doherty blamed both the low
turnout and the defeat for CFS on
the lack of discussion and action
related to student issues for the better part of the academic year.
"Students at Algonquin have
been hurt as hard as any others by
cutbacks and lack of accessibility", Doherty said, "but few have
been drawn into any kind of grassroots activity on these or other
issues".
"Most members of the student
association executive seemed to
feel they could solve all of the
problems themselves", he added.
The Gauntlet was unable to
contact a willing spokesperson at
Algonquin College by press time.
The U of S was the fifteenth
institution to join CFS so far this
year, while the Algonquin vote
was the first that CFS has ever lost.
Matt Shaugnessy, formerly a
fieldworker with the Federation of
Alberta Students, was among those helping to organize the pro-
CFS campaign at Algonquin.
U of S Students' Union President Rutherford concluded by
challenging "other campuses - like
the U of C - to get involved with
CFS like we have".
"At no other campus", he
boasted, "have as many students
voted for CFS as was the case
here", a result of the combination
of large turnout, high proportion of
support for CFS, and large size of
the student population.
No intervention
by Rob Weaver
There are no Cuban soldiers in fessional elite.
Nicaragua, says an internationally Numerous experts, particularly
known authority on modern Cent- from Scandinavia and Western
ral America who visited the Uni- Europe, are helping in the recon-
versity of Calgary on Friday. struction, but since the election of
According to Gregorio Selser, a Reagan, aid from the U.S. has
former professor of political sci- been virtually stopped,
ence at the University of Buenos In fact, Selser suggested, the
Aires, who is currently interna- situation in Nicaragua is reminis-
tional head of £7 £>ia, one of Mex- cent of Cuba between 1959 and
ico City's leading daily newspap- 1961—the U.S. may well create
ers, the 1500 to 2000 Cubans cur- what it doesn't want, pushing
rently in Nicaragua are nearly all Nicaragua into the Soviet sphere
specialists in health and education, by isolating it economically,
working to aid in the reconstruc- Also contributing to the anti-
tionof the war-torn country. U.S. polarization in Nicaragua,
This directly contradicts the according to Selser, are the 800 to
claims of the U.S. Reagan ad- 1000 Somocistas (soldiers still
ministration, which has pointed to loyal to now-deceased former
Cuban military presence in Nicara- dictator Somoza) training in
gua to justify American involve- Florida, and the U.S. military aid
ment in El Salvador. to hostile neighbouring Honduras.
In his talk, Selser described a These have forced Nicaragua to
disastrous Nicaraguan economic devote too much of its scant re-
situation inherited from the ' sources to defending against an in-
Somoza regime, which was over- vasion, he concluded,
thrown in July, 1979—three billion Selser's lecture was jointly
dollars in foreign debt, declining sponsored by the U of C's Latin
prices for major exports such as American Studies Committee and
coffee and cotton, and gaps left by the Canadian Association of Latin
the departure of many in the pro- American and Caribbean Studies.
INSIDE:
Scathing editorial 3
Exclusive with Burton 4
First hockey photo of year 6

The Gauntlet
CFS ok at U of S,
not at Algonquin
External Commissioner Bill Wong explains why he opposes a referendum on CFS member*
Jean Munn (right) and Donna Baines are not amused.
photo by Ty Reynolds
SLC belabours CFS
by Jim Stanford
The U of C students circulating
the petition calling for a referendum full membership in the
Canadian Federation of Students
(CFS) have collected the required
number of signatures to force the
Students' Union to hold the ballot.
But the majority of Students'
Legislative Council that opposes
the holding of the referendum is
not going to give up that easily.
According to Miriam Schmidt,
chairperson of the U of C Anti-
Cutbacks Team, and organizer of
the petition campaign, over 1600
signatures have been collected calling for the opportunity to vote on
CFS membership.
The petition was presented to
last night's SLC meeting; but a
motion to accept the petition and
call a referendum was defeated by
a 9-7 vote.
Constitutionally, a petition that
is signed by at least 10% of the
Students' Union membership
(slightly more than 1200 signatures, given this year's under
graduate enrollment of 12,000 at
the U of C) can force the Union to
sponsor a referendum on any
question.
The SLC vote was, in constitutional terms, not an important one,
because the petition was going tc
be referred to the Review Board
(an appointed body of the Students' Union somewhat like the
Supreme Court) for examination
anyway.
If the Review Board decides that
the petition is valid, and SLC then
refuses to hold the referendum, those student councillors opposing
the referendum will be collectively
impeachable, according to Rick
Biilington, Speaker of SLC.
That's not good enough, however, for VP-Programs Donna
Baines, who helped with the petition campaign and supported the
referendum motion. She said that
by refusing to sponsor the referendum, councillors "are ignoring this crystal clear statement
from 1600 students".
"Why are we so scared of hear-
Signing is easy
The controversy at the SIC
meeting last night tended to
push the success of Out CFS
referendum petition campaign into tiie background.
Ami-Cutbacks Team
chairperson Miriam Schmidt
says that over 1600 signatures were collected calling
for the referendum in just over
two weeks of petitioning.
"The ease with which we
collected die required signatures seems to back up what
we've been saying all along:
students want a chance to
vote on the issue of CFS membership*', she said.
ACT member Jane Bouey,
who played a central role in
organizing die petition
campaign, claimed that there
"was almost a unal absence
of negative response''.
Not only did most of the students I talked to want a choice
on membership in CFS, but
most of them also wanted to
join", she said.
It was the second success-
fid petition campaign carried
out by ACT this year. In October of this year, Anti-
Cutbacks Team members collected over 3000 signatures at
the V of C on the nation-wide
"Stop the Cuts - Grants Not
Loans" petition sponsored by
CFS.
ing - and listening - to what students really think?", she asked
during debate last night.
SU President Richard
O'Gorman spoke against calling
the referendum, saying that
sponsoring a vote this semester
would be "asking me to make a
choice when I'm not ready to".
O'Gorman added, though, that
if the Review Board finds the petition valid, SLC would have no
choice other than to go ahead and
sponsor a referendum.
ACT chair Schmidt disputed
claims that students are uninformed on CFS, suggesting that
the work done by ACT and others
this year had made more students
aware of both student issues and
student organizations.
"Besides", she added, "I haven't seen this council do anything
to make students more knowledg-
able on the organization''.
External Commissioner Bill
Wong had some questions regarding the advertising that accompanied the petition campaign,
suggesting that the services offered
by CFS were not as extensive as
advertised.
VP-External Munn countered
that " it is important that we are not
talking about opposition to CFS,
but rather about the referendum
itself'.
The Review Board will now
hold a hearing to decide whether or
not the petition is valid. If so, the
referendum will be held in conjunction with the upcoming Students' Union elections in March.
Some of those council members
opposing the referendum suggested that the petition could be
ruled invalid because of the manner in which signatures were collected. Baines laughed at this suggestion, saying that "students are
not stupid enough to sign petitions
without knowing what they are about; it is insulting for us to suggest
otherwise".
by Jim Stanford
The fledgling Canadian Federation of Students picked up 10,000
more members last week, but also
lost another 10,000 potential members in a split double-header of major referenda.
Students at the University of
Saskatchewan in Saskatoon voted
by an overwhelming margin of
81 % to join the new national student organization. Also
noteworthy about the U of S vote,
held Thursday and Friday of last
week, was a near-astounding voter
turnout of 31 %, "the highest turnout for an election or referendum
on this campus in recent history",
according to U of S Students' Union president Don Rutherford.
Rutherford was pleased with the
outcome of the referendum, suggesting that "overall the students
were convinced that CFS is a really
worthwhile organization''.
"We were able to get a lot of
information out to the students on
what CFS can do and is doing for
the students", he told theGaunt-
let. "and received a great deal of
support from the various student
societies and clubs on campus''.
CFS Executive Officer John
Doherty agreed with Rutherford's
post-referendum analysis, adding
that "there has been so much discussion all year at the U of S about
the whole range of student issues,
and especially the question of
funding, that the students could not
help but see the potential of a national student organization".
U of S was the good news for
Doherty and CFS; the bad news
came last week from the students at
Algonquin College in Nepean, Ontario. They also voted on CFS
membership last week, and re
jected the national organization
narrowly, 56% to44%.
The turnout for the Algonquin
ballot was a substantial contrast to
the case at the U of S, with only
between 8 and 9% of all students
voicing their sentiments either
way.
Doherty blamed both the low
turnout and the defeat for CFS on
the lack of discussion and action
related to student issues for the better part of the academic year.
"Students at Algonquin have
been hurt as hard as any others by
cutbacks and lack of accessibility", Doherty said, "but few have
been drawn into any kind of grassroots activity on these or other
issues".
"Most members of the student
association executive seemed to
feel they could solve all of the
problems themselves", he added.
The Gauntlet was unable to
contact a willing spokesperson at
Algonquin College by press time.
The U of S was the fifteenth
institution to join CFS so far this
year, while the Algonquin vote
was the first that CFS has ever lost.
Matt Shaugnessy, formerly a
fieldworker with the Federation of
Alberta Students, was among those helping to organize the pro-
CFS campaign at Algonquin.
U of S Students' Union President Rutherford concluded by
challenging "other campuses - like
the U of C - to get involved with
CFS like we have".
"At no other campus", he
boasted, "have as many students
voted for CFS as was the case
here", a result of the combination
of large turnout, high proportion of
support for CFS, and large size of
the student population.
No intervention
by Rob Weaver
There are no Cuban soldiers in fessional elite.
Nicaragua, says an internationally Numerous experts, particularly
known authority on modern Cent- from Scandinavia and Western
ral America who visited the Uni- Europe, are helping in the recon-
versity of Calgary on Friday. struction, but since the election of
According to Gregorio Selser, a Reagan, aid from the U.S. has
former professor of political sci- been virtually stopped,
ence at the University of Buenos In fact, Selser suggested, the
Aires, who is currently interna- situation in Nicaragua is reminis-
tional head of £7 £>ia, one of Mex- cent of Cuba between 1959 and
ico City's leading daily newspap- 1961—the U.S. may well create
ers, the 1500 to 2000 Cubans cur- what it doesn't want, pushing
rently in Nicaragua are nearly all Nicaragua into the Soviet sphere
specialists in health and education, by isolating it economically,
working to aid in the reconstruc- Also contributing to the anti-
tionof the war-torn country. U.S. polarization in Nicaragua,
This directly contradicts the according to Selser, are the 800 to
claims of the U.S. Reagan ad- 1000 Somocistas (soldiers still
ministration, which has pointed to loyal to now-deceased former
Cuban military presence in Nicara- dictator Somoza) training in
gua to justify American involve- Florida, and the U.S. military aid
ment in El Salvador. to hostile neighbouring Honduras.
In his talk, Selser described a These have forced Nicaragua to
disastrous Nicaraguan economic devote too much of its scant re-
situation inherited from the ' sources to defending against an in-
Somoza regime, which was over- vasion, he concluded,
thrown in July, 1979—three billion Selser's lecture was jointly
dollars in foreign debt, declining sponsored by the U of C's Latin
prices for major exports such as American Studies Committee and
coffee and cotton, and gaps left by the Canadian Association of Latin
the departure of many in the pro- American and Caribbean Studies.
INSIDE:
Scathing editorial 3
Exclusive with Burton 4
First hockey photo of year 6